Attorney General appeals in error against UTM registration ruling: Judge Chirwa faces smear
The Attorney General (AG) has made erroneous facts on the appeal against the High Court ruling made on Friday by Judge John Chirwa which gave the registrar of political parties seven days to register UTM as a party effective September 21, 2018, it has been observed.
Legal experts critiquing the documents filed by Attorney General through Neverson Chisiza, Senior State Advocate, in the notice of appeal, that it has the wrong date (2017) yet there was no UTM registration case in 2017 but this year.
The Attoreny General is appealing a High Court judgment in the High Court instead of The Supreme Court of Appeal, it has been observed
Only a party to the proceedings (in this case the Registrar who rejected UTM registration) can appeal and not his lawyer or a third party, legal experts noted.
Another legal supremo observed that the appeal should be an application and not a summons.
Consequences of these errors may lead the court to throw out the appeal document as it is irregular (the irregularity being a summons instead of an application).
The court can also adjourn the proceedings until the errors are rectified. If adjourned costs will be awarded to UTM’s lawyers.
“Consequently poor drafting of legal documents impacts negatively on lawyers, further can ruin the reputation of the entire legal profession. Poor legal drafting weakens credibility and wastes the time of judges, other lawyers and clients, thereby wasting money,” observed a legal scholar.
Laywer for UTM in the matter, Michael Goba Chipeta, confirmed being served with the notice of appeal with fundamental errors.
However, Chipeta said the party will continue with its plans to register the party because the notice of appeal on its own cannot change the ruling by High Court which described the decision by the registrar of Political Parties to reject UTM’s application as “unreasonable and unjustifiable” and consequently ordered its registration within seven days.
“We have been served with the notice of appeal. We are going to respond to the appeal. But the notice of appeal on its own does not change the judgment of the High Court. So, the judgment is still in force and we expect the registrar [of political parties] to comply.
“We have also been served, in addition to the notice of appeal, an application by the Attorney General to stay execution of the judgment of the High Court,” said Chipeta.
Chipeta said the court for appeal will have to look at the erros of Attorney General’s appeal as some of the substantive issues but refused to discuss the matter in the media, sying they were “meritorious issues.”
The State has appealed on the grounds that the judge erred in law and fact by finding that UTM was not accorded an opportunity to be heard as if the UTM was being accused of wrong doing and that the judge misdirected himself at law and fact in finding that the registrar in exercising his statutory duties should have restricted himself to what was presented to him and pay a blind eye to what is in the public domain among other things.
UTM spokesperson, Joseph Chidanti-Malunga, said in a statement seen by Nyasa Times that movement is not moved by the application made by the State on the ruling.
“As things stand, there is nothing at law stopping the Registrar of Political Paries from registering UTM as a political party by Friday 9 November 2018,” said Malunga.
Meanwhile, sources at the Judiciary have told Nyasa Times hat Judge John Chirwa is living dangerously for his ruling in favour of UTM and that he is targeted for ‘enemy action’ by the regime.
Among other things, the judge faces smear campaign and attacks. He is under surivellance from State spies.
Asked to comment on the feared threat to independence of the Judiciary, a legal scholar said: “Denial can be an incurable disease.”
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Tikatero timati ng’ombe zayang’ana ku dazibomo mu DPP
Outrageous! Panicking will cause DPP many mistakes. Bingu Mutharika won by 64%, a vote of sympathy. Chilima will do the same because the sympathy of many undecided Malawians are now turning to sympathise with Chilima. This is now unstoppable
Kkkkkkkkkkkk iii trying here and there koma zikulephererka zokha ayayaya idiot AG
Iwe mtumbuka mzanga AG ukundichitisa manyazi. Ndiwe mtumbukadi iwe? Kapena may I wako ndi mlomwe. Kkkkk
Zomakamba mitundu zithe , Tumbuka tumbuka , mlomwe , mlomwe chani apa . Saulosi akukana zomwezo . We are all Malawians
Disaster in DPP! What else do you expect from a party whose strategists include Ngolongoliwa, Mchacha, Jeff wa Jeff and Ben Phiri ( of the maliseche fame)?
The erroneous made by the Attorney general (Registrar of political parties) in Malawi is another scam of shame for the regime. When we argued that proffessor maliseche is a fake lecture in law. He was lecturing the nursery school in Chicago.
Look how embarrassing these lomwe belt are, their advisor in law are regrettable and shameful. Wooo to you useless people. SKC I believe in you now when you say awa ndi mafanaaaaaa, eeee ana achepadiiii
Thats a problem of being emotional and used! How can the whole learned AG fail to notice these anomallies? Eish, Malawi akufika popangitsa manyazi. However, looking deeply our political scenes, one can confidently say that GOD is not happy the way Malawi is being led. How come ma blunder akungochuluka every day? How come kuti any sinister plan ikumaululika? I personaly believe God is confusing them kuti akhale pambalanganda. Wanzeru werenga Lemba pa khoma.
Kutseguka m’mimba ku DPP’ko coz of UTM kuti pyerepyere kuli kuopa! We know kuti ndi tulo tomwe simukutinyantha.
When fate is on your side such errors cannot be avoided. They are making UTM more popular and gaining sympathy following. Pakuvilonga, they will win sympathy vote,
When Things Are Falling Apart even the centre can not hold one Chinua Achebe once wrote. So the question being that “Why the government is hell bent on blocking UTM to register if UTM is a group of disgruntled politicians as we are usually told by the establishment? ” This is a clear sign that power is swinging towards ………. mmmmm yes indeed. Should I prophesy??? Malawi come May next year will have a brand new leader, be it Chilima, Chakwera, Joyce Banda, Atupele that I don’t know BUT there will be a brand new leader kkkkkkkkkk. The problem with the establishment don’t have proper strategists, they just listen to the old school with tactics of the 60s so it’s just blunder after blunder cos thone tactics went past their expiry date long time ago. This is 21st century gentlemen & ladies try to move with time. How can you expect the guys who got their PhDs from faceless Distance Education Colleges to be your strategists??????? Shame.
demoni kalasi ya kumalawi mlaliki wina wa pa radio maria anatero.UTM WILL CARRY THE FLAG COME 2019
If the Registrar is compelled, by high court order, to register UTM by the 9th Nov 2018 then he should comply. The application for appeal and stay execution of judgement cases will probably be held after the 9th Nov unless there’s another urgent application by the AG for the two cases to be heard before the 9th Nov. But then they have to prove that this is indeed urgent and the courts will have to be convinced of the merit for urgent hearing. It may be that the courts will throw our the urgent application anyway so the applications will be moot. In any case, why is DPP embarrassing itself in public and in the process demonstrating its incompetence. This is the problem with deployment of cronies in key positions. We have an AG who doesn’t know technicalities of law. This is patronage politics at its best and of course DPP will pay the ultimate price. DPP better prays that it wins the next elections otherwise the prisons will be full of ex politicians (petty thieves will be released to make way for white collar criminals).
This so called AG for Malawi is a serious disaster in the history of that office
When change came in 1993, even Dr. Banda did not use the courts to suppress those who wanted to form political parties. Why are you scared of UTM?
Vuto lopanga zinthu ndi phuma komanso kutumidwa ndi Ngolongoliwa ndilimenelo, mwawona tsopano ma errors kkkkkk
Small mistake
This is what happens when u do things out anger and desperation.
Continue campaigning for the mighty UTM
Kkkķkkk akapanda kumanga nyumba yehova woimanga amanga chabe.Mulungu simunthu amaona zolinga za anthu oipa mtima.Uku nkuonetsa zolinga zonyatsa za DPP pa UTM.Mwaona evil minds mmene zayalukira.Amalawi omwe mumakonda dziko lanu pempherani kuti Mulungu apitirize kuwayalutsa anthu oipawa
Koma eyatu zinthu zasinthatu!! tilikalikiliki ku kweza zina UTM, muma newspaper utm, mayalesi utm’ TV utm, koma yikuyenga ngati mafuta pamwamba pamazi
Apapa boma la DPP likuzibaya paphazitu…Recent survey shows that if UTM is not going to be registered then MCP will win with landslide victory since UTM supporters will go for the opposition party… Be careful DPP, arrange to register UTM through your registrar…
Koma nde kupalatu Mr AG…. kodi AG ameneyu anamkumba pati??? Kapena titi sukulu yake anayimbira kuti….. zoona kulephera tikupanga file notice of appeal yomwe?? smh
It would seem that the State Advocates are becoming just as useless as the judges. The former don’t know how to file Notices of Appeal and the later are totally incompetent in finalising appeals. What an utterly disgusting state of affairs.
Our God of heavens is making these blue guys to be confused. They are totally confused because their bellies are fatty with taxpayers money which they obtain illegally. Dzanja lalemba. Every plan they are plotting will turn against them. Enough is enough, they must pack and go. Zinaymba ndi Joji Chapenda. Zinsinsi zonse ziri pambalambanda. Bravo Judge John Chirwa for a landmark ruling. No smear campaign against you (Your Worship) will prosper as you were only doing your professional duty. You served our Malawi beautiful democracy.
Join the discussion…MULUNGU AKATI AYI BASI SIZITHEKAZO ASIYENI BASI NGATI MUKULIMBA DIKILANI 2019 MUKUNGOONONGA NDALAMA YA MISOKHO YA ANTHUN OSALAKWA NDALAMA ZIMENEZO BWEZI K[MUTAKAGULA MANKHWALA KU CHIPATALA ZA ZIIIII